May 23, 2011

I tried to concoct the longest blog post title ever. So after a long week -- not implying that it was bad, just long days and lots of work -- Tim and I went to the local AMC theatre and watched the film, POM Wonderful presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, directed by Morgan Spurlock. I really quite enjoyed it. There is a fair amount of humor throughout the show. If you're looking for a film to supplement your 4 year degree in marketing and advertising, this will leave you a little short of your goal. You're not going to come away a mastermind of the ad world but it is insightful and entertaining.

David Ferguson's review of the film is good. I interpret his writing style to say, "you start with an F! Now impress me and I might give you a B." Either way, its good to hear both sides. He said,

"I have spent some time thinking about this and I will stick to my conclusion. What the movie doesn't do is provide any insight or detail into what drives product placement in entertainment. However, the movie does a decent job showing us how presentations are made to advertising managers at companies, and it leans heavily on Mr. Spurlock's often-hilarious viewpoint of situations (Mane & Tail shampoo)."

I would have to disagree, though it's never said explicitly, the between the lines of this film is all about what drives product placement. A few times he did make reference to it, ie. TiVo and the World Wide Web. And lets be honest with ourselves, very, very rarely do you go to a national cinema to be educated. That's what NOVAs for.

As for me, I felt like I did learn something AND I was entertained. Morgan is a strange man. He's quite funny and very quick. I won't spoil the whole movie for you but at one point he's talking to the chief marketing officers of BAN and he asked them how they would describe their product and with blank stares they said nothing. After a few moments one of the said, "Superior technology. BAN is superior technology". Morgan replies something along the lies of, "Really? People don't want to put technology in their arm pit."

On a scale of 1-10 I'd give it a 7.5. Go see it. You'll laugh and hey, you may even learn something.